The Best and Worst ST Bridges

[SupAJ1M]

my fav has to be the intrepid class bridge without a doubt. spacious, functional, i love how the ops and tactical stations arranged. only down side is, ive always loved the classic captains chair bang in the middle but nevermind

my least fav bridge has to be the galaxy class (before the generations refit) it look likes a living room, tidy, comfortable, do love the wooden curved tactical station though. but the whole thing is just to bright, the lcars displays are boring, dosnt look all that exciting in a red alert eviroment either. The refit bridge is a much better improvement. darker, side stations added,more going on with the lcars displays. those steps are pretty cool too.

 

[Dayton3]

The best is the original series bridge hands down.

The U.S. Navy thought a lot of it.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Prometheus Class Bridge.

 

[RobertScorpio]

my fav has to be the intrepid class bridge without a doubt. spacious, functional, i love how the ops and tactical stations arranged. only down side is, ive always loved the classic captains chair bang in the middle but nevermind

my least fav bridge has to be the galaxy class (before the generations refit) it look likes a living room, tidy, comfortable, do love the wooden curved tactical station though. but the whole thing is just to bright, the lcars displays are boring, dosnt look all that exciting in a red alert eviroment either. The refit bridge is a much better improvement. darker, side stations added,more going on with the lcars displays. those steps are pretty cool too.

Great question

TOS is the best

IN SEARCH OF SPOCK-Excelsior bridge is the worst

Rob

 

[Finn]

^Best or Worse in your opinion??

Best- I'd go with the Intrepid Class one too.

Worst- I'll pick two. I'd go with the Grissom for the funky decor it had. But I also would pick the Enterprise (NX-01)'s bridge because I found it tooooo spacious and advanced for a race that has been only wading into space for several decades. They should have made it seem like space travel was still long and hard.

 

[Shawnster]

IN SEARCH OF SPOCK-Excelsior bridge is the worst

Rob

That's because, if memory serves, it wasn't a fully fleshed out bridge. Enough of the set was built to fulfill the needs of the script.

 

[RobertScorpio]

IN SEARCH OF SPOCK-Excelsior bridge is the worst

Rob

That's because, if memory serves, it wasn't a fully fleshed out bridge. Enough of the set was built to fulfill the needs of the script.

Yeah, thats true. But still...it just looked terrible. I remember seeing the ship the first time the crew did as they passsed by it in space dock. I remember saying "God I hope they show us the bridge"..and then they did...and I was like, wow, the budget cutters did it again...

By the way. The bridge set at the end of VOYAGE HOME. Is that the same set from FINAL FRONTIER???

Rob

 

[kv1at3485]

Defiant and Galaxy don't do it for me.

On Defiant, how is the CO supposed to see the all-important (at least as Trek goes) small viewscreen through the head of the guy at the helm?

Galaxy is just a huge waste of space, and it must be a pain in the ass for the CO to communicate with the guys behind him. Although I wasn't fond of it back in the day, the colour scheme is fine, as is the general 'hotel' look of the interior of the entire ship. On a spaceship it's generally not a good idea for morale to hammer in at every opportunity the fact they're in a tin can of air.

I guess that puts the STVI bridge down a few notches for me too. Used to love the spartan, military look. But it just doesn't seem right for a spaceship anymore.

 

[JNG]

my least fav bridge has to be the galaxy class (before the generations refit) it look likes a living room, tidy, comfortable, do love the wooden curved tactical station though. but the whole thing is just to bright, the lcars displays are boring, dosnt look all that exciting in a red alert eviroment either. The refit bridge is a much better improvement. darker, side stations added,more going on with the lcars displays. those steps are pretty cool too.

The 1701-D bridge got a lot better as they changed lighting over time, part of which was due to improvements in film that required less light. By the end of the show, it made the actors look quite good, but its greatest achievement is how BIG they made it look on screen when it was actually only a few feet larger in a single dimension than the TOS bridge. I do agree the Generations version was an improvement, and while it came perilously close to going too far in its changes (that ceiling was really starting to look odd presented that way), it ultimately held up well on the big screen.

My favorite is the TOS bridge, in its various slightly different forms during the regular series run of that show. Its mix of sixties industrial style and cool colors, lights and sounds made it simply a more interesting place to watch on television and yet oddly believable, while its basic layout frankly has yet to be improved upon and has only really been reused in slightly different iterations. It's a classic that holds up well today.

In little-known favorites of mine, I rather liked the Prometheus bridge that appeared in VOY: "Message in a Bottle." The lighting, heavy use of white, open spaces and clean lines looked like at least one believable path of decor evolution for the newest starship bridge we had seen to date. Not bad for a one-episode wonder made from redressing old bridges (well, as they almost all are).

 

[RobertScorpio]

Defiant and Galaxy don't do it for me.

On Defiant, how is the CO supposed to see the all-important (at least as Trek goes) small viewscreen through the head of the guy at the helm?

Galaxy is just a huge waste of space, and it must be a pain in the ass for the CO to communicate with the guys behind him. Although I wasn't fond of it back in the day, the colour scheme is fine, as is the general 'hotel' look of the interior of the entire ship. On a spaceship it's generally not a good idea for morale to hammer in at every opportunity the fact they're in a tin can of air.

I guess that puts the STVI bridge down a few notches for me too. Used to love the spartan, military look. But it just doesn't seem right for a spaceship anymore.

I prefer the STVI because it just looks better, and more believable than the 'hotel' look of the Galaxy. As for the Defiant, I agree. i would have liked a bridge that looked more like the defiant. Here is this small little kick ass ship, and the bridge looks like a standard starfleet bridge. Since it was a prototype I would have preferred a less 'complete' bridge with more 'hodge podge' look to it...like the Milinium Falcon

Rob

 

[Warp Coil]

I really liked the Ent-D bridge updates from GEN. I never really believed that the bridge was a realistic control center for such a large ship, but the movie resolved my issues. The extra stations, more detail, darker paint colors, darker lighting, brighter LCARS and the incorporation of video monitors really made the bridge look busy and functional. I also love the Ent-A bridge from TUC. It looks very real. I love the metallic colors, the incorporation of physical buttons as well as LCARS.

Least favorite designs include the Excelsior bridge from TSFS (tacky and cheap) and Voyager's bridge (there seems to be too much open, wasted space).

 

[HRHTheKING]

Best: The Enterprise D in GEN

Worst: The Enterprise D in TNG Seasons 1 to 7

 

[Red Ranger]

Best: The original Enterprise from TOS.

Worst: The Sutherland's bridge from TNG ep Redemption, Pt. II. No rhyme or reason to it!

 

[btflash]

IN SEARCH OF SPOCK-Excelsior bridge is the worst

Rob[/quote]

i second that!

 

[Marie1]

I like the Defiant's Bridge- nice and open, everyone can see each other. The duties that don't require people to be in front are neatly in the back- but perfectly accessible...
the platform with the Captain's chair is a bit wide... but overall I like it.

I don't like Ops on DS9-not sure it counts, but its got stairs everywhere! You have to run all over to look at stuff. What were the Cardassians thinking? I can't imagine thats out of necessity...

 

[jgdst]

Hmm, if we're counting DS9 itself, then I've got the opposite opinion - Ops is one of my favourites, the way everything is positioned so you always know the Prefect is in charge, and looking up to him. The huge viewscreen which isn't always in use is a nice touch, I feel.

For ships though, it's a tough call between Intrepid and Enterprise NX-01 for me. They just always came across as a little more functional to me than from some of the other bridges we'd seen.

Least favourite bridge is even tougher to call... The Enterprise-E always felt too cramped to me for a ship its size. And I didn't much care for those pulsing light columns on the NX-02 and future NX-01. It seems kind of dumb to position columns right in the middle of a bridge where you need to access every station easily, or for the crew to see the viewscreen, CO or other bridge staff.

Overall though, I'm going to have to choose the Romulan ship from Balance of Terror. It didn't seem practical or functional, and crowding your entire bridge staff round one podium adds to that feeling. Other than that, it's oddly sparse with just a corridor leading off the 'back' of the room.

(Although I can't make a definitive decision yet, I wasn't completely sold on the Trek XI Enterprise bridge. It will probably grow on me once I've seen the film, but it's a little more white and sparkly than I expected).

 

[Marie1]

^ Thats why I hate it, that presumptuousness of Dukat's the fact that Ops had to be designed in such an absurd manner to cater to his ego.

I'm surprised they didn't toss some sheet metal in their and raise the island when they took back the station- everyone on the stairs while it the station was being bashed around during attacks.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Best: The television production bridge from TOS as seen in the early first-season episodes; the lighting was much more dramatic.

Worst: The swing bridges from TNG -- i.e. the redressed "guest bridge" -- and DS9, especially the Enterprise-C bridge.

 

[Mr. B]

I guess I don't have much company but I really liked the Ent-E bridge in First Contact (got messed up later)

I think the worst was the Scimitar in Nemesis... dark, ugly and unnecessarily cavernous.

 

[Theodore Jay Miller]

Best ST bridge:

Worst ST bridge: